"IS ANYBODY PAYING ATTENTION?" The mindful view of an educated Buddhist blogger who uses critical thinking, evidence, facts, and investigation to come up with his opinions instead of fear based ideologies.

Monday, October 28, 2013

As has been mentioned by many people in the press, Antonin Scalia is more than a little outspoken in his supposed "original constitution" opinions. I guess he should take into appraisal the fact that 'the original constitution framers' were slave owners. We, as a nation have decided that discrimination is wrong, although Scalia makes no apologies for calling the fourteenth amendment a "racial entitlement" that was NOT ABOUT black people, even though it was enacted to allow former slaves and other African Americans to vote. AS I REMEMBER, we didn't have any slaves who weren't black, so what is this racist homophobe running his mouth for? Did I just mention homophobe? He uses the pope and the Catholic church as an excuse to discriminate and hate on gay people and I wonder what his excuse is going to be now that the new pope said that gays and abortion are "too much of a Catholic obsession" and wants his parishioners to stop the hate. I have a definite reason for my opinion about his mental condition. He has been confronted and his reaction to people suggesting he is senile was, "I will tell you when I am no longer in charge of my mental faculties", which means he is defensive about it and wants to hide out as a "cranky old man" (born in 1936, he is 77), so he obviously dyes his always jet black hair, to hide his age (another sign he is hiding something).
Let me give you a couple lines from the diagnosis for Alzheimer's disease as written out on Wikipedia: "... Most often, AD is diagnosed in people over 65 years of age, although the less-prevalent early-onset Alzheimer's can occur much earlier. In 2006, there were 26.6 million sufferers worldwide. Alzheimer's is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people globally by 2050.
All anyone needs to know about Scalia is in the article (his wiki) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Scalia . It states his opinions are supposedly termed (by him) as "originalism in interpreting the constitution" which if I decide to be 'original' in deciding laws for validity, I will be accused of ignoring them, so I don't understand what he thinks he is doing. As a member of the Supreme Court, he is supposed to decide if a situation is constitutionally sound, not decide how he can reinterpret the constitution to fit his agenda, but that is exactly what he does. He hates alternative action but even though there is some unfairness in the laws, one on the bench is supposed to decide situations as the law states, not try to rewrite the law based on religious mythology and any other text one can cherry pick from. He doesn't need to recuse himself from cases that are a conflict of interest, in my opinion, he needs to step down from the bench and get a brain scan for dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Although Alzheimer's disease develops differently for every individual, there are many common symptoms. Early symptoms are often mistakenly thought to be 'age-related' concerns, or manifestations of stress. In the early stages, the most common symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. When AD is suspected, the diagnosis is usually confirmed with tests that evaluate behaviour and thinking abilities, often followed by a brain scan if available, however, examination of brain tissue is required for a definitive diagnosis. As the disease advances, symptoms can include confusion, irritability, aggression, mood swings, trouble with language, and long-term memory loss. As the sufferer declines they often withdraw from family and society. Gradually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death. Since the disease is different for each individual, predicting how it will affect the person is difficult. AD develops for an unknown and variable amount of time before becoming fully apparent, and it can progress undiagnosed for years." The entire article with references for gathered information is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_disease
The obvious reasons he should step down are that he should never, with his frame of reference in the world concerning his discrimination towards women, gays, and minorities (especially blacks) should be obvious to everyone who believes in equality. Our world is no longer run by white guys living in the conservative ideology bubble (the Bill O'Reilly "Leave it to Beaver" land that never existed). As so, our Supreme Court, the most important court for democratic and impartial decisions in the land, should NOT be, either.

Monday, October 14, 2013

I always considered paying my income taxes part of my duty as an American Citizen. It occurs to me that if Anything seems unAmerican to me, it is the people who complain to pay their fair share of income tax and them want to complain about Government. Of course those same people are always asking me to elect them to government. If they hate government so much, they shouldn't run for office. Also, congratulations on not seeing your party going down in flames until it was too late. Some of us warned you a LONG TIME ago that the Libertarian Loonies like Ron Paul would destroy your party. Look this link up: http://www.dailypaul.com/251769/we-will-take-over-the-republican-party-or-destroy-it That is part of the Daily Paul, the newsletter written by Ron Paul where he explains how they are going to destroy the Republican Party from within. In 2008 he described how they should all run as Republicans to infiltrate on the inside. You thought your increase in numbers was somehow an indication that people suddenly liked failed economic policies and backwards arithmetic that crashes the economy and only makes people like you , who are already wealthy, more successful, and guts the rest of us. That ('trickle-down' which actually goes up) will never happen no matter how much the CATO institute gets paid by the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch to tell stupid people it will work, someday, maybe. And now from the other side of the aisle, crazy intentionally, elected to wreck Washington, D.C. from the inside. It makes me think that the kids of the people from the 50s and 60s who were Marxist and Leninist, got together and finally put the Abbie Hoffman plan (infiltrate and destroy) into action. I knew some of the guys who broke into (using forged invitations)the Republican National Convention in Chicago and wore Nixon masks, flashing everyone the two finger of each hand, victory symbols that Nixon was so famous for. I was a teenager at the time. It seems they finally got even. Karma is a real bitch, isn't it? You picked Sarah Palin, She picked Ted Cruz, and he is ruining your party from the inside because you were all to weak to out him as an outsider, in hopes for support from one more Teabillie. I hate to say it, but I told you this would happen years ago.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Alrighty Now! Fox News and specifically Rupert Murdoch has to be laughing his ass off right now. First, the guys who own Fox news are the owner of Al Jazeera - Al-Waleed bin Talal and an rich Australian name Rupert Murdoch. Both are extremist right wing selfish rich news moguls and recently Murdoch even went to court and fought against a law suit with the only defense he had being, "There is no American law that says I can't lie and intentionally mislead the public."The battle over the lawsuit was won in an appellate court and testifies to the idea that most of America already knows, that Fox and the other right wing news stations are not news, they are instead a propaganda platform for the extremist regressive Republicans and Neo-Cons.

Also, I was having a few moments of hope for the long standing stupidity of the Christian right, and the new Catholic pope was sounding pretty awesomely progressive for a few minutes until this came up:Bishops Push for Conscience Protections in Government Funding which basically means the same thing the Republicans are saying, "IF WE DON'T GET OUR WAY WE ARE GOING TO RUIN LIFE FOR ALL AMERICANS". Selfish, self centered, and completely on the wrong side of history, not only for now, but for our entire past and trying to wrongly destroy our future.

Why the Republican party and especially their "Tea Party" constituency has been LYING OUT OF THEIR ASSES for months now about the Affordable Care Act.

Why they want to vote against something that will actually HELP the American people for the sake of special interests, like wealthy healthcare insurance corporations.

The cat's out of the bag! Bernie Sanders of Vermont exposed the Koch brothers of Koch Industries of creating this whole situation. He pays Rupert Murdoch to lie to people about climate change (because doing something about that would end their fossil fuel empire and create an environmental protection enforcement that would make them stop creating the pollution they create for profit) so they use Murdoch's right wing propaganda empire to "catapult the propaganda", as G.W. Bush would say, while creating legions of dumbasses who don't realize that their own donations (that most of them when being honest, admit that they haven't donated anything) can't pay for millions of dollars of buses, hotel rooms, and expense accounts to support their protest rallies so that they stand around holding misspelled signs with catch phrase slogans that when you ask them what they mean, they, if they are honest enough to admit it, instead of trying to double talk with another even more hollow slogan, don't know where the money is coming from, although the rest of the world knows that recent tax write offs for the Kochs show that they have sponsored almost 500 million dollars of "grass roots movement" activities which coincidentally fit into their agenda.

So, Americans, I have a new deal for you. You on the right say that mainstream media is "left wing liberal leaning" and the rest of us who can read and investigate things called facts, call what you read "fiction" at best but call it lies. Let's not listen to ANY OF THEM. That way we all have to look it up and investigate what really happened by using credible information sources, not people who go to court defending their right to lie to you, what do you say? I dare you. I bet some of you can't do it for a week.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

There is no question in my mind and shouldn't be, in anyone else's mind, who is selling out our democracy, and our capitalist economy. The supposed bastions of democracy and rights, who are the first ones to scream "socialism" when someone wants to use the social safety nets that are put in place for the poor, elderly, and disabled are pushing us right into a communist (socialism) economy, which, only stupid people don't understand, is the only last bastion of safety after a failed economy. The rich and greedy in this country don't feel like they are getting enough, so let's see what they feel like when they are given a government that takes everything they have and distributes among those who will work hard to keep it equally balanced and take care of their fellows (comrades) in a true socialist economy.Karl Marx wasn't writing about something that he hoped or wished would happen, he was writing about what happens when capitalism fails. Anyone who has read his works understands this. He said that when capitalism fails (which it is doing through the eventual collapse that he predicted, from unlimited greed causing one sided unfairness) then true communism (the sharing of everything equally, regulated by a strong police state/army like the one that has been in place in the Soviet Union for decades) will have to take over in order for people who revolt to get what they need, which is not riches and wealth, it is just a comfortable life that they can thrive in. The horror stories about Russian "bread lines" never mentioned the fact that the reason hundreds of people in each province stood in line to get bread was because it was being given away for free. If you think that would not happen here, put up a sign that says "free food" on any corner in any town in America and see what kind of line builds up. The shame of it is, the people in the United States that would be standing in line three times trying to get someone else's share of food are some of the rich here.
When I was a teenager, I worked in a car wash at one time, and I had a friend and coworker who used to say that if you put a sign up that said, "Free Dog Turds", that some people would be offended but there would always be some rich guy in a huge expensive car demanding to get three of them, and angry, telling you the unfairness of the fact that there was a rule of, "only one per customer".
Today, "the free dog turd guys" have bought and paid for a social network of disinformation to make stupid, ill informed, less fortunate than them group of people allow them and in fact, insist that they deserve all three dog turds, because that is A) God's will, B) the American way, and truly the right thing to do because of the way our justice system and freedom for all demands it should be, and C) Because to stupid ill informed sheeple, some people deserve more. The reason they say that is because they have been taught a social construct that I mention over and over, the stupidity of the indoctrination of Christianity, the hierarchy of people. The bible tells us that people are NOT equal, that God is over Man, Man is over Woman, Rich Men are over Poor Men, and People are more important than Trees, Plant,s and Animals (mammals, fish, birds, and basically everything not human).
Those of us who understand that fascists wrote those rules so they could excuse their greed and their cheating of society, have evolved in our thinking and believe in ONE WORD that stupid people don't get. EQUALITY. The fact that some of us believe in that word makes lots of people angry or confused. One of my neighbors recently asked me, "But, isn't that a "LIBERAL" idea?" The moment those words came out of her mouth, I exploded. I see what is happening is that some in power through being religious leaders have abused their authority and taught people to be sheep. You will notice they always call their "followers" by one name repeatedly. Their "FLOCK". And what do we think of when we think of people tending their "FLOCK"? One word comes to mind.

I guess the question for everyone has to be, "If this is NOT who you are, then why are you acting like it is?" Why are you allowing a couple guys with money to construct a take down of our democracy when you know that when they get what they want, they will run from this place like it is on fire and leave you in it's ashes to take the blame. Who are they? Let me give you their picture and a list of what they "own".

Meet Charles and David Koch. They own what seems like half the manufacturing and oil businesses in the United States and that still isn't enough for them. They won't be happy until they have destroyed the United States economy in order to punish us for NOT electing the guys they wanted in power, so they could take even more of our hard earned tax dollars. Their father made them rich by selling oil rigs to the Soviet Union and training them how to use them. Then they took over their father's multi-billion dollar empire and that just wasn't enough for them. They developed fracking and now also pollute most of the most important natural resources we have here.

The list of their holdings is:

From Wikipedia;

"Koch Industries, Inc. /ˈkoʊk/ is an American multinational corporation based in Wichita, Kansas, United States, with subsidiaries involved in manufacturing, trading and investments. Koch also owns Invista, Georgia-Pacific, Flint Hills Resources, Koch Pipeline, Koch Fertilizer, Koch Minerals and Matador Cattle Company. Koch companies are involved in core industries such as the manufacturing, refining and distribution of petroleum, chemicals, energy, fiber, intermediates and polymers, minerals, fertilizers, pulp and paper, chemical technology equipment, ranching, finance, commodities trading, as well as other ventures and investments. The firm employs 50,000 people in the United States and another 20,000 in 59 other countries.

In 2011, Forbes called it the second largest privately held company in the United States (after Cargill), with an annual revenue of about $98 billion, down from the largest in 2006. If Koch Industries were a public company in 2007, it would have ranked about 16 in the Fortune 500.

Fred C. Koch, after whom Koch Industries, Inc. is named, co-founded the company in 1940 and developed an innovative crude oil refining process. His sons, Charles de Ganahl Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, and David H. Koch, executive vice president, are principal owners of the company after they bought out their brothers, "Fred" and William Ingraham "Bill", for $1.1 billion in 1983. Charles and David H. Koch each own 42% of Koch Industries, ..." and also, as to their Political Activities:

"... Koch Industries has spent more than $50 million to lobby in Washington between 2006 and October 2011, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The company has opposed the regulation of financial derivatives and limits on greenhouse gases. It sponsors free market foundations and causes.According to the Center for Responsive Politics, many of Koch Industries' contributions have gone toward achieving legislation on energy issues, defense appropriations and financial regulatory reform. Koch Industries has been criticized by the environmentalist group Greenpeace for the role they allege the company plays in affecting climate change policy in the United States, along with other major producers of oil and petroleum like ExxonMobil and Chevron. Koch Industries replied saying the Greenpeace report "distorts the environmental record of our companies."One policy proposal to control global warming that Koch Industries has come out against is Low Carbon Fuel Standards, such as were passed in 2007 in California. According to Koch Industries, "LCFS would cripple refiners that rely on heavy crude feedstocks to provide the transportation fuels that keep America moving."The Koch Industries website includes an opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal by Charles Koch, one of the company's owners, "Why Koch Industries is Speaking Out." The article states: "Because of our activism, we've been vilified by various groups. Despite this criticism, we're determined to keep contributing and standing up for those politicians, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who are taking these challenges [deficit spending by governments] seriously."The company also funds the political action committee KochPAC."

It is no wonder that they own (fund) most of all supposed "conservative think tanks" and anti democratic organisations in the United States including "The CATO Institute", Americans for Prosperity, and recently it was proved through tax forms that they basically own and operate the "Tea Party" and fund all of it's activities. They will soon be the sole proprietors of the destruction of capitalism - the thing that they so desperately cling to - for the sake of their unlimited greed and unbridled contempt of the United States' most average citizens. Their company is based in Wichita, Kansas but when the United States self destructs, then they will probably run to where their dad found his fortune when he was run out of business locally, The Soviet Union.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

"... Senator McCain;
The latest Tea Party Tantrum has dropped your party's approval rating to 10 percent which means your disapproval rating is 90 percent. I feel sorry for you, having to watch your own party disconnect from the people and self destruct into extinction. I thought you would like to hear what one of the wisest economists in our nation said about this:" Robert ReichAn old friend, who has been active in politics for more than thirty years, told me yesterday that he was giving up. "I can't stomach what's going on in Washington any more," he said. "The hell with all of them. I have better things to do with my life." My friend is falling exactly into the trap that the extreme right wants all of us to fall into -- such disgust and cynicism that we all give up on politics. Then they're free to take over everything. Make no mistake: Ted Cruz and his Tea Party followers, and the Koch brothers and their other financial patrons, are relishing this shutdown. They're delighted that 95% of the Environmental Protection Agency is down, so polluters can do whatever they want; that 80% of the Labor Department is down, so unscrupulous employers can trample on their employees; that much of the Securities and Exchange Commission is down, so corporations can have a field day. And they'd like nothing more than a default on the nation's debt in two weeks, because the resulting financial chaos will cause even more of us to become angry and cynical. That's the point: They feed off of anger and cynicism. Our response should be the opposite: We will not give in to bullies or intimidation, and nor will we give in to cynicism about what our government needs to be and who it needs to serve. We will remain engaged and active, and push every member of Congress as well as the President to remain steadfast."

I agree with Mr. Reich completely and so do most Americans. The harder you push, the harder we will fight you. Goodbye, Senator McCain.

Oh, and sort of a closing note, Isn't it a shame that the same people who invaded and infiltrated your party probably won't be reelected to dog catcher next midterm but their stink will reflect on everyone in the Republican Party for decades because no one in the GOP had the sense to use "REGULATION" (a word I know you can't stand) of this other thing your party seems to be disconnected from "ETHICS"? Have nice day. ..."

About Me

I am an Arizona native, born and raised in Phoenix, although I have lived for brief times in other places. I am what one would call a Centrist. I don't believe in radical left or right stances and refuse to let the low information, regressive, right wing people call me "liberal" since that would be left of reality based on opinion, and I believe in facts and research of evidence.